From Interstate 70, take Exit 171 and follow U.S. 24. Drive almost 5 miles and turn right onto the Tigiwon road. The turn is just before U.S. 24 crosses the Eagle River and starts to switchback up the hillside. The Tigiwon road is dirt and cars can usually make it to the trailhead. Drive just over 8 miles to the trailhead. More information on the Tigiwon Road (#707) can be found on the US Forest Service Motorized Vehicle Use Map for the Holy Cross Ranger District.

Winter Access:

Closed near the bottom of the Tigiwon road. Road is closed from November 22nd until June 21st but they may not open the gate until late in the day on the 20th, depending on conditions or when they get around to it. If you plan on heading there around the time of the road opening, please contact the Holy Cross office of the US Forest Service Eagle-Holy Cross Ranger District at 970-827-5715.

The gate is opened and the road is in really good condition for a dirt road. I took a 93 Subaru Impreza up and only bottomed out once (my fault as I could have easily avoided it)
There is a restroom at Th

Before we drove up it had probably only snowed about 6" in the last two weeks. Road was fine in a jeep. Passed a couple Civics. One at about 5.5 mi going slow and one parked at 6.6 mi. I don‘t see any reason they could not have continued to TH. They must have stopped where they did for a reason. I would have had no qualms about slowly driving a passenger car all the way up. It‘s probably snowed 12-18" since we left but maybe this report can be useful in future years.

Tigiwon (FR 707) was bare dirt or minimal mud all of the way up to trailhead (8.4 miles) and could be passed with a non-4WD car though it is very rough and seemingly endless. There is more mud and snow at the trailhead but not yet unmanageble without 4wd.

Tigiwon Rd. is dry and passable by 2WD cars (made it in an Acura with no problems). Saw the area of the road that would be impassable when wet so if in a 2WD low clearance car heed the wet road warning. You could go up in dry conditions and get stuck. However, today was a breeze. There is snow and ice up high on Mount of the Holy Cross, Notch Mountain, and Halo Ridge. It is nothing major but will make things a bit slick.

Still clear, but potholes increase as you get higher. Conservatively driven cars and all trucks/suv‘s should have little issue making the drive. It does take a good while to make it to the top, so plan your timeline for this leg (8 miles) to take about 25 minutes on a good day.

Many passenger cars made it to the trailhead without an issue. If there was a good amount of rain it would be difficult to get a small passenger car to the trailhead.
The Half Moon trail is one of the best I have hiked on before.

Beware! After reading the previous report I took up my passenger car... But it had rained that day and about 5 miles up on the dirt road there was a very muddy patch that my car could not pass. I‘m sure on a dry and sunny weekend any car could make it, but know that if it has rained recently its best to take a car with some clearance and AWD/4wd. 4 miles walking on the road to the TH is not desirable. Thankfully some folks gave us a ride. Peace!

I made it up in a 2-seater rear-wheel drive MR2 Spyder. If that car can make it, any car can :-). Note that around mile 4.0 from the TH coming down I bottomed out at the worst place on the road. Not sure I had a choice under the circumstances. Did fine going uphill.

Gate the road is opening later tonight! It will "definitely" be open tomorrow according to the Holy Cross ranger office at 24747 US Highway 24, Minturn, CO 81645, 970-827-5715. I just got off the phone with them a minute ago.

Made it up there easily on Thursday (11-1-12) in a front wheel drive Accord with no problems whatsoever. At 6am the few stretches of frozen snowpacked road were easy to negotiate. The snow was kind of granular and seemed to provide good traction. Didn‘t need chains, but I have pretty good all-season tires on the car. On the way down, after a fairly warm day up there, the road was wet and muddy, and the snow was slushy. Ground clearance is not a problem either, you just steer around a few rocks and potholes. Drive slow. There was the occasional hunter with pickup truck along the road. Have fun.

The road is open to the Halfmoon Pass TH. The road is packed snow, mud, ice and dirt. A 4x4 vehicle would be desired to make the full drive up the road. There were plenty of hunters on the road, so they are helping keep the road accessible. The trail to the bench at 11,600‘ is easily followed and packed down. I then broke the trail from the bench, down the slope for about 1/4 of mile, to where you get the awesome view of Mt. of the Holy Cross. The snow was about 6" - 12" deep.

Road is still dry, clear, and in summer conditions as of 10/20. Snowline is creeping down towards the elevation of the TH, but Tigiwon is still dry and passable by any vehicle. I spoke to a ranger before departing and he thought the road would remain open (albiet in steadily deteriorating conditions) through mid-November.